A mom's daily struggle with work, play, and a crazy toddler.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Quick Bread woes

This will be my last post until at least next week. Sad, I know. We are travelling to Watertown for Thanksgiving, and my boyfriend's family has something I didn't even know still existed- limited internet. As in, no wireless. I'm not even sure what method they use, but it definitely doesn't allow me enough time to blog. 

I am very excited for Thanksgiving at the Porters' though, because Dave's mom is an excellent cook. I often have to force myself to not take thirds of her cooking, but seconds is unavoidable. Needless to say, I will be wolfing down her food similar to how I wolfed down my mom's on Saturday. Thank god for all the calories I'm burning producing milk for the hungry hungry hippo. 


I wanted to bring a dish to share, but this makes me extremely nervous, since comparing my creation to Lisa's creations is basically a death sentence. I will be bringing scalloped corn. Don't ask me how I settled on this, or why. As if my cooking will never compare to hers anyways, I'm apparently making their grandma's recipe of this dish, so I am completely doomed. Why did I think bringing corn to a farmer's Thanksgiving, people who specialize in corn for a LIVING, was a good idea? 

I decided it was necessary to make a test run of the dish, just to make sure it wasn't poisonous. I made the test run for our Fakesgiving last weekend, and it wasn't half-bad! Almost the entire casserole dish was gone by the end of dinner! I think that's a good sign??

Then, in a delusional state, I thought bringing a second dish would be a good choice. It's Melissa's family's brown bread recipe. I was introduced to it a few years ago, when I went to their Thanksgiving, and have been addicted ever since. My reasoning was that it would be nice to bring one dish that was expected, and a second as a surprise treat. 

Call me crazy, but I've never baked a quick bread before. I'm hindered by the fact that my mom's are just too delicious- why bother making my own? I'm additionally hindered by our g.d. oven. As a renter, I don't expect top notch appliances, but this oven really shits the barrel. The temperature dial is no where near accurate, so it usually runs at least 15 degrees hotter than you set it at. I've tried to dial back to adjust for this discrepancy, but somehow I always, always manage to burn things.

To my delight, the bread had been in the oven, smelling delicious, so here I was thinking things were going smoothly. When my timer went off, I go to pull the bread out only to see that the edges are starting to burn. But, here's the kicker- the inside of the bread was still mushy. Meaning that it wasn't fully cooked throughout, but I couldn't put it back in the oven in fear that the edges would burn even more. BUST BUST BUST. Strongly considering just not even bringing that one. 
Doesn't even look good

I then had a minor freakout telling myself that I will never be a good cook or baker, and I will just quit while I'm ahead now, never to cook or bake again.

The food you give me is delicious, Mom!
But I'd rather eat my foot

3 comments:

  1. I've never heard the phrase "shits the barrel". Obviously we are extremely spoiled because when I got sent the menu for my Thanksgiving this year I was like "this is it?". There weren't any new and exciting recipes, clipart, or poems in sight. I'll try to deal but it will be rough.

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  2. That bread sounds awful. Maybe you can set your oven on fire and your landlord will have to replace it.

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  3. I've never even heard of that corn dish you're making, but I'd probably eat it. I'm so hungry lately that I'd probably try to eat your shoe. Mmmm leather....

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